Persona 4 – This is exactly what high school was like

July 13, 2009

Kids these days

I played the first three hours of Persona on Friday night. After those three hours I pressed the X button hundreds of times to get through lengthy conversations. I fought in maybe five or six actual battles. I might have had direct control of my character for thirty minutes. I’m pretty sure all I accomplished was the tutorial. I had a great time.

Persona 4 is all about being a high school kid in rural Japan and all the burdens that come with it. Including solving murders by going inside TV’s and fighting demons. Most of the time I played was spent being acclimated with the characters and the setting. I went to class a few times, made some friends, and went inside the TV a few times to meet a bear and rescue my friends from demons. There were a few anime cut scenes sprinkled in for good measure.

If there’s on thing I didn’t like it was that the game spelled everything out for me in the most painful fashion possible. It made me feel like I was a two year old that couldn’t even follow the most basic plot developments. For example, I was watching the news one night and after it was over, the main character would summarize everything he just heard. This summarization happens after almost anything plot related happens .

I look forward to the next time I sit down with Persona 4, at which point I’ll provide a more in depth look at gameplay, because like I said, I’m pretty sure I just completed the introduction to the game. Expect more Persona 4 later this week.